Trump cites JTN-reported witness claim that Schiff OK'ed plan to leak classified info to hurt him

President Donald Trump on Wednesday cited bombshell witness testimony first revealed by Just the News that he said provided “irrefutable proof” that Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff had approved a scheme to leak classified information to harm him during his first term.

A career intelligence officer who worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee for more than a decade repeatedly warned the FBI beginning in 2017 that then-Rep. Schiff, of California, had approved leaking classified information to smear Trump over the now-debunked Russiagate scandal, according to FBI memos that now-Director Kash Patel has turned over to Congress and that were first obtained by Just the News on Monday.

"Just out, irrefutable proof that Adam Shifty Schiff” had “APPROVED PLAN TO LEAK CLASSIFIED INFORMATION TO DAMAGE DONALD TRUMP," Trump posted on Truth Social.

The FBI 302 interview reports obtained by Just the News this week state the intelligence staffer – a Democrat by party affiliation who described himself as a friend to Schiff and former Republican House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes – considered the classified leaking to be "unethical," "illegal" and “treasonous,” but was told not to worry about it because Schiff believed he would be spared prosecution under the Constitution's speech and debate clause.

In his most recent interview with the bureau in 2023, the whistleblower, whose name is redacted, told agents from the FBI's St. Louis office that he personally attended a meeting at which Schiff authorized leaking classified information.

"When working in this capacity, [redacted staffer's name] was called to an all-staff meeting by SCHIFF," the interview report said. "In this meeting, SCHIFF stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States DONALD J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to indict President TRUMP.”

The whistleblower told investigators that he "stated this would be illegal and, upon hearing his concerns, unnamed members of the meeting reassured that they would not be caught leaking classified information," the 2023 interview report stated.

The staffer made similar claims to agents in the FBI's Washington field office as early as 2017, shortly after Trump took office for his first term.

"For years, certain officials used their positions to selectively leak classified information to shape political narratives," Patel told Just the News on Monday.

Schiff told Just the News on Tuesday that Patel’s "latest smear against" him is "absolutely and categorically false, and is just the latest in a series of defamatory attacks from the President and his allies.”

Schiff, who served as the top Democrat and, then chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence before ascending to the Senate, pushed false allegations of Trump-Russia collusion for many years, and touted British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier – even reading multiple baseless claims from it into the congressional record in March 2017.

The whistleblower began approaching the FBI that same year.

In one meeting, the Democratic House intelligence staffer told the FBI that retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn – Trump’s first national security adviser – was to be a specific focus of the committee as part of a broader effort to target Trump. The whistleblower also specifically pointed to Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., as a likely source of classified leaks, the memos state.

The whistleblower was interviewed twice by the FBI in 2017 and at least four times over six years about the alleged Schiff leaks, but Justice Department prosecutors declined to move forward, according to the memos.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a December 2024 report which said that prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the nation’s capital “conducted a probing interview of the Committee Witness and determined that the Committee Witness had little support for their contentions that certain individuals could be leaking classified information and may not have been credible.”

An FBI classified leaks investigation codenamed Sirens Lure stated that the FBI’s Washington Field Office “attempted to speak with another former staffer from HPSCI, but HPSCI counsel intervened and objected to any interview in a criminal investigation without further information from WFO based on Speech or Debate privileges,” according to the declassified memos obtained by Just the News.